The country's major
job fairs for foreigners have featured
increasingly more high-tech and
management-oriented positions than the
formerly dominant teaching posts, said
a senior official with the department
that oversees attracting and managing
international professionals.
Between 2005
and 2008, the majority of positions
offered at top job fairs for
foreigners were for language teachers,
but the post-financial-crisis period has
seen more enterprises seeking professionals
with other expertise, Zhong Yanguang,
deputy director of the Information
Research Center of International Talent
under the State Administration of
Foreign Experts Affairs, said on the
sidelines of a job fair on
Saturday.
"In the past many
enterprises hired foreigners mainly to
show that they have international
staff, but now as more and more
Chinese enterprises are eyeing the
global market, they tend to employ
and efficiently use those international
human resources," he
said.
Zhong's organization has
held major job fairs for expats
every year in Beijing, Shanghai and
Guangzhou since 2005.
In Beijing,
most jobs at the fair tend to
go to high-tech and management-oriented
professionals; in Shanghai, financial talent
is tops in demand; and in
Guangzhou, enterprises need marketing
professionals, according to
Zhong.
At the Beijing job
fair on Saturday, language-teaching posts
accounted for less than 50 percent,
which marked a major
change.
Nearly 70 enterprises and
organizations participated in the fair,
posting more than 1,000
jobs.
China International Chamber
of Commerce for the Private Sector
looked for eight professionals to fill
marketing and management positions provided
by six private
enterprises.
"Privately owned
businesses, especially medium-sized ones, are
thirsty for foreign professionals to
help them explore the overseas
market," said Qi Tao, a spokesperson
for the chamber.
The CICCPS
has more than 140 members, and they
have participated in the job fair
for five years.
At the
fair, the foreign experts affairs
bureau in Rizhao city, Shandong
province, was organizing local enterprises
to seek foreign talent.
"The
city's high-tech industry is
developing fast and we urgently need
talent in fields such as
agricultural-machinery manufacturing, biological
medicine, environmental protection and
seawater desalination," said Li Jianyun,
who was in charge of the
recruitment for the bureau at the
fair.
Li's organization offered
70 positions in those
fields.
Also at the fair,
Hebei-based Great Wall Motor Co was
looking for talent to manage overseas
programs.
"We want to hire
professionals from India and Thailand
to manage our future projects in
those two countries because we plan
to set up factories there, and
we need people who know local
markets well," a staff member with
the company said on condition of
anonymity.
More than 1,500 job
seekers were expected to pass through
the fair by the end of
Saturday, according to Zhong
Yanguang.
Natalia Pozdeeva, from
Russia, has been working in Beijing
for four years and now works at
a Russian logistics firm, but she
wants to change jobs.
"I
hope to find a job at a
Chinese logistics company in Beijing,
and the reason I want to stay
in the industry is because trade
between China and Russia continues to
be prosperous," she said.
Pedro
Hernandez, from Spain, studies computer
science at the University of Alcala
in Madrid.
Hernandez will
graduate in July and he will
end his exchange-student program in
China's Shandong University in
months.
"China's IT industry
develops fast and there are many
more job opportunities here than in
Spain," he said.
The
30-year-old said he wants to find
a software-development job in
Beijing.
Reve Tardivel is from
Cameroon, and he will complete his
master's degree in economics and
business management from a school in
Beijing in July.
"I enjoy
my life in China and I'm
going to marry a Chinese next
month. I also notice a lot of
job opportunities here," said the
27-year-old.
